Ensuring your client code is not given to unauthorised users will help you control the usage and cost of interpreting services incurred by your agency.

The security of your client code is your responsibility so it is essential that you monitor who has access to use it within your organisation.

There are options available to associate ‘required information’ fields with your client code to help monitor who is using the account. Contact your Client Liaison and Promotions account manager for more information.

Government services should be available to everyone who is entitled to them and should be free of any form of discrimination irrespective of a person’s country of birth, language, culture, race or religion. If you are a government agency you have an obligation under the whole of government Access and Equity strategy to provide services that are accessible to clients with limited English skills by providing interpreters.

TIS National encourages private agencies to promote Access and Equity as it ensures non-English speaking clients have the same level of access to services as an English speaker would have. Where an agency does not accept interpreter-assisted calls requested by non-English speakers, the non-English speaker will most likely seek access to these services through an agency which does.

There are options available to associate ‘required information’ fields with your client code to help monitor who is using the account. Contact your Client liaison and promotions account manager for more information.

A ‘NES initiated’ call is a call where a non-English speaker (NES) calls TIS National directly and requests the assistance of an interpreter to speak with your agency.

If your agency accepts NES initiated calls, TIS National operators will connect the NES to your agency with an interpreter already on the line.

When TIS National receives a NES initiated call, our operator will phone your agency and introduce themselves. When your agency has agreed to accept the call the operator will connect you with the NES and interpreter and provide the job number before leaving the conversation.

A job number is a nine digit number TIS National will give you as a reference to each interpreting service.

Job numbers are automatically generated in our system when a new interpreting job has been created and is provided to you and to the interpreter. Write this number down as a record of the service in case you have any follow up enquiries about the service.

You will need to quote your client code each time you request a TIS National service, pay an invoice or update your account details. You can start accessing TIS National services once you have a TIS National client code.

Yes, as a Government service you have an obligation under the Whole of Government Access and Equity strategy to provide services that are accessible to clients with limited English skills by providing interpreting services.

At the time of registration, authorisation is provided to TIS National to charge your agency for the costs of using interpreters. This includes all attempts to contact your agency; unanswered calls and those that go to voicemail.

There are options available to associate ‘required information’ fields with your client code to help monitor who is using the account. Contact the Client Liaison Team for more information.

TIS National encourages private agencies to promote Access and Equity as it ensures clients with limited English skills have the same level of access to services as an English speaker would have.

At the time of registration, authorisation is provided to TIS National to charge your organisation for the costs of using interpreters. This includes all attempts to contact your organisation; unanswered calls and those that go to voicemail.

To make changes to your account settings, log into TIS Online and from the ‘Agency account’ page scroll down to the ‘Communications’ section and edit the question ‘Will you accept calls initiated by the non-English speaker?’

There are also options available to associate ‘required information’ fields with your client code to help monitor who is using the account. Contact the Client Liaison Team for more information.

Medical practitioners (defined as general practitioners and approved medical specialists) are eligible for the Department of Social Services' Free Interpreting Service and access to the Doctors Priority Line (DPL) when providing services that are:

Medicare-rebateable

delivered in private practice, and

provided to non-English speakers who are eligible for Medicare.

Nursing and practice support staff who are working with a private medical practitioner registered with TIS National can also access the service using the same client code.
Doctors who meet the above criteria can apply for access to free services and access to the DPL by completing the Register for a TIS National client code form.

The Free Interpreting Service aims to provide equitable access to key services that are not government funded, for people with limited or no English language proficiency.

The Free Interpreting Service is delivered by TIS National, on behalf of the Department of Social Services. The following groups can access the Free Interpreting Service to provide services to anyone in Australia who are eligible for Medicare:

Medical practitioners: when delivering Medicare rebateable services in private practice. Nurses, reception and other practice support staff can also access the service when working with the registered medical practitioner.

Pharmacies: to provide community pharmacy services.

Non-government organisations: when providing casework and emergency services, where the organisation does not receive substantial government funding to provide these services.

Local government authorities: to communicate about most local government services.

Trade unions: to assist workers to access support and advice.

Parliamentarians: for constituency purposes.

The Department of Social Services, through TIS National, provides the Free Interpreting Service to approved organisations and individual service providers when communicating with eligible Australians who do not speak English.
Find out if your organisation is eligible for free interpreting.
More information is available about the Free Interpreting Service on the Department of Social Services website at www.dss.gov.au/free-interpreting.

Email is TIS National’s preferred method for receiving remittances however you may also send remittances by mail. Please ensure that you have clearly indicated which invoice is being paid on the remittance.

For any questions relating to your TIS National invoice contact the TIS National Finance administration team between 9 am and 5 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), Monday to Friday (except public holidays).

TIS National will issue a refund by cheque for any credit which is the result of an overpayment, duplicate payment or payment made in error. An email detailing the refund will be sent in advance of the cheque.

If you have any questions about a cheque you have received from TIS National contact the TIS National Finance administration team.

Pre-booked telephone and on-site services are requested in advance and scheduled for a specific period of time. If the actual interpreting time of the appointment runs longer than the scheduled time, the agency will be charged for the extra time.

Charges for extra time will appear on your invoice as a separate line item with ‘A1’ at the end of the job or invoice number.

For example, if an on-site interpreter is booked for 90 minutes but the actual session lasts for 120 minutes, the charge will be split into two items on your invoice. The first item will be for the time that was booked (90 minutes), and the second item will be for the additional time (30 minutes).

If your agency is interested in having a representative from TIS National conduct a presentation at your organisation, you can submit a request to your Client liaison and promotions account manager who will let you know if it will be possible and if there are any associated costs.

TIS National values client feedback as it helps us to provide a high quality service to our clients. We track feedback patterns and use it to identify potential service issues and update our processes.

We receive a range of feedback including feedback about:

interpreter conduct and performance

operator conduct and performance

experiences when using TIS National services

If you would like to provide feedback to TIS National please complete the online feedback form. Alternatively you can contact the feedback team on 133 177 to provide feedback to TIS National.

When TIS National receives feedback it is recorded in our systems and referred to the appropriate team in TIS National to investigate within fifteen days of receiving it.

If you cannot contact TIS National it may be because we are experiencing an outage. If this happens, please refer to the Alerts section of our website for details.

If TIS National experiences an outage our immediate telephone operators can work on a manual system. Operating on the manual system can be a time consuming process and you may not be provided with a job number at the time of the call.

No. If you have moved to a new agency ask your manager at your new agency if they use TIS National services.

If your new agency uses TIS National services you should find out:

what client code they would like you to use

what (if any) information you may need to provide to TIS National when requesting services.

If your new agency is not registered with TIS National but would like to use our services, contact a Client Liaison account manager for advice on the most appropriate service solutions for the organisation.

If you are having difficulty finding an available interpreter in your requested language, we encourage you to call during our off-peak times. During off-peak times high demand languages are more likely to be available.

TIS National’s peak demand times are between 10 am and 5 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), Monday to Thursday. During these times you may experience difficulty accessing an interpreter in the language required.

Calling between 8 am to 10 am (AEST), Monday to Thursday and any time on Friday may improve your chances of finding an available interpreter in the language required.

TIS National endeavours to develop services in line with feedback received from our clients. To provide TIS National with feedback about services you require which are not currently available complete our online feedback form to let us know.

The Department of Social Services provides a free translating service for people settling permanently in Australia. Permanent residents and select temporary or provisional visa holders are able to have up to ten eligible documents translated, into English, within the first two years of their eligible visa grant date.

From 1 July 2017, applications for the Free Interpreting Service are made online at www.translating.dss.gov.au. Clients need to provide evidence of their eligibility for this service when applying. More information about the Free Translating Service is available at www.translating.dss.gov.au.

ATIS is an automated voice-prompted immediate phone interpreting service. ATIS is a service for agency clients to access an interpreter in high demand languages without assistance from a TIS National operator.

ATIS uses voice recognition technology to identify the language requested, and automatically connect you with an interpreter in that language. ATIS allows you to avoid lengthy call wait times you may experience when calling the contact centre for an immediate phone interpreter.

ATIS provides immediate phone interpreting services in the following 54 high demand languages:

ATIS Languages

Albanian

Hazaragi

Portuguese

Amharic

Hindi

Punjabi

Arabic

Indonesian

Rohingya

Assyrian

Italian

Russian

Bengali (alt Bangla)

Japanese

Samoan

Bosnian

Karen

Serbian

Cantonese

Khmer

Sinhalese

Chaldean

Kirundi

Somali

Hakha Chin

Korean

Spanish

Croatian

Southern Kurdish (alt Feyli)

Sudanese Arabic

Dari

Kurmanji [Northern Kurdish]

Swahili (alt Ki-Swahili)

Dinka

Macedonian

Tamil

Farsi (alt Persian)

Mandarin

Thai

Filipino (alt Tagalog)

Myanmar language (alt Burmese)

Tibetan

French

Nepali

Tigrinya

German

Oromo

Turkish

Greek

Pashtu

Urdu

Hakka (Chinese)

Polish

Vietnamese

ATIS users receive a discount of up to 10 per cent off TIS National’s immediate phone interpreter charges, so using the service is an excellent opportunity for clients to reduce interpreting costs. See Phone interpreting for more information.

Immediate phone interpreting is available for agency clients and non-English speakers who need to use an interpreter immediately over the phone.

The immediate phone interpreting service can be accessed by agency and non-English speaking clients who need to use an interpreter immediately over the phone with the assistance of a contact centre operator by calling 131 450. Agency clients can also access an interpreter immediately over the phone by using ATIS.

When using a phone interpreter would not be suitable, TIS National can arrange for an interpreter to visit your location. On-site interpreting services can be arranged for any location in Australia (subject to interpreter availability).

You can easily request and manage all of your on-site interpreter bookings through TIS Online. Using TIS Online allows us to secure an interpreter for your request in the shortest possible time frame. All agencies registered with a TIS National account are automatically registered to use TIS Online. Find out more about TIS Online or visit the TIS Online login page to get started.

Pre-booking your phone interpreter will ensure any special requirements can be catered for and that the best available interpreter can be secured for the time you nominate. Pre-booking an interpreter is recommended when the assignment may be complex, requires specialist knowledge or the availability of interpreters in a particular language is limited.

Pre-booking allows time for background or briefing material to be provided and examined by the interpreter, so the actual interpreting time is used in the most efficient manner. In many cases, using a pre-booked phone interpreter has proven to be an effective and less expensive alternative to providing an on-site interpreter. To request a pre-booked phone interpreter fill out the interpreter booking form.

Yes. You can access a copy of A guide to TIS Online for agencies in Portable Document Format (PDF) as well as view the TIS Online instructional video for agencies from the TIS Online for agencies section of our website.

Yes. TIS Online allows you to easily cancel your bookings up until the scheduled completion time. If we are unable to fill a booking or you cancel a Standard On-site booking (less than 6.5 hours) more than 24 hours before the scheduled start time, you will not be charged for the booking. A Full Day On-site assignment (6.5 hours or more) must be cancelled more than 48 hours than the scheduled start time to avoid cancellation charges.

Yes. You can make changes to your bookings in TIS Online up to 24 hours before the scheduled start time of the booking.

If you change the name of the non-English speaker or the interpreter instructions, the booking will be updated immediately.

If you change the address, start or end time of the booking when it is already allocated to an interpreter, this may impact the interpreters’ ability to complete the job so the interpreter will need to re-accept the job.

Yes. Once a job has been completed, you can finalise the booking with TIS National through TIS Online. If you haven’t finalised a job in TIS Online within 7 days after the booking took place, it will be escalated to a TIS National staff member to resolve.

Yes. While bookings can be finalised directly through TIS Online, it’s important you sign the interpreters SDF at each appointment so that in case a dispute arises, we can refer to the SDF to verify the appointment details.

Yes. Interpreters use TIS Online to accept all of their on-site interpreting work through TIS National. As interpreters also have the ability to use TIS Online, the time it takes to allocate an interpreter to your request should reduce significantly when you use TIS Online.

Yes. TIS Online works on most internet-enabled mobile devices, so you can manage your jobs wherever and whenever it’s most convenient for you. We recommend that you regularly update the software on your mobile device to make sure TIS Online works most effectively.

You can contact the Channel Support team if you need assistance using TIS Online. The team is available during standard business hours. For urgent enquiries outside of these hours, please call the TIS National contact centre on 131 450.

For assistance with matters not related to TIS Online, please refer to the contact us section of our website.

As jobs requested in TIS Online are automatically posted out to all interpreters who meet the job requirements rather than manually calling individual interpreters, the time it takes to allocate an interpreter to your request should reduce significantly when you use TIS Online.

The lead time to find an interpreter for your booking will vary for each job, however we anticipate most booking requests will be accepted by an interpreter within a day, if not within a matter of hours.

You can create a new on-site interpreter booking request on TIS Online any time up until 24 hours before the appointment start time. If you need to request an on-site interpreter with less than 24 hours’ notice before the appointment start time, please contact the Channel Support team.

TIS Online allows you to request an interpreter in any language TIS National provides interpreting services in. You can see the full list of languages available through TIS National when you create a new booking request in TIS Online.

If it reaches 48 hours before the scheduled start time of your booking and no interpreters have accepted your booking, TIS National treats the request as an urgent job and starts manually calling interpreters to fill the booking. If no available interpreter can be found, you will receive a notification when the booking is cancelled.

An account administrator can be one or more people within your agency responsible for managing your agency’s TIS Online account. Account administrators have access to more functionality in TIS Online than account agents or account contacts.

Account users are people within your agency who have been invited to access your agency’s account by an account administrator. Account agents can request and manage on-site interpreter bookings in TIS Online, but do not have access to the full range of TIS Online functions as an account administrator.

Yes. TIS Online always offers bookings to the highest credentialed interpreters first. Your booking will only be offered to lower credentialed interpreters when no higher credentialed interpreters have accepted it after being available for six hours.

In your request, if you select that you would only like an interpreter at the Certified Interpreter/ Professional level, your booking will be offered exclusively to interpreters holding this credential.

TIS Online has been designed for both PC and Apple-based operating systems and has been optimised for recent internet browsers. To ensure TIS Online renders most effectively, we recommend you regularly update your internet browser.

This ensures that clients receive the most qualified available interpreter.

In some circumstances, limited additional factors such as those outlined below may be taken into account in determining allocation. However, the highest available credential level always remains a primary criterion.

Gender:

TIS National accepts that there are sometimes circumstances where an interpreter of a specific gender is required. For example, this may be necessary for sensitive matters, especially those of a medical nature. To facilitate this, clients can indicate the gender of interpreter required (where this is important). TIS National will then allocate the highest credentialed available interpreter of that gender, wherever possible.

Working with Children’s Check:

Occasionally, clients may advise TIS National that they require an interpreter with a Working with Children’s Check (or equivalent). Such requests are made in order to comply with relevant legislation and TIS National will therefore give such requests priority when determining allocation. In these circumstances, allocation will be to the most highly credentialed available interpreter who holds the required Check.

limit TIS National’s ability to supply an interpreter, particularly for urgent requests (the specified interpreter may not be available when requested); and

may not result in allocation of the most highly credentialed interpreter available for your appointment.

In exceptional circumstances, TIS National may agree to fulfil a client’s request for a specific interpreter. However, the client must first clearly demonstrate what exceptional circumstances apply to warrant allocation outside of normal policy.

Whilst such requests are assessed on a case by case basis, they are more likely to be considered favourably where a client can demonstrate that allocation of the nominated interpreter is:

essential to maintaining the quality and continuity of care or service; and

of clear benefit to the non-English speaking client.

Clients will be required to complete an indemnity form, including details of the exceptional circumstances which apply, before TIS National will consider a specific interpreter request.

Specific interpreter requests must generally be made at least three business days prior to the appointment date. Requests made less than three business days in advance will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and will generally result in an interpreter being allocated in accordance with standard TIS National interpreter allocation policy.

If a specific interpreter request is declined, the client will be offered the highest credentialed interpreter available at the time. Where a client chooses not to accept the interpreter allocated in this manner and decides to cancel the request, this must be done with sufficient notice, in accordance with TIS National’s Cancellation Policy in order to avoid charges. Cancellations must be made in TIS Online or in writing, as appropriate.

No other considerations are ordinarily taken into account when allocating assignments.

TIS National:

does not keep records on interpreters’ ethnicity, nationality, country of birth, religion or political affiliations and is unable to allocate interpreters based on these considerations

will not provide a specific interpreter simply to meet the personal preferences of the client or non-English speaker (NES)

will not agree to allocate a specific interpreter outside of the usual allocation policy where there is no evidence to substantiate a history or continuity of care or service.

We endeavour to allocate an interpreter to your request within three days of receiving your request. Once an interpreter has been allocated to the assignment you will receive a booking confirmation by email or fax including the appointment details. This confirmation includes the details you need to follow at the scheduled booking time to connect with your interpreter.

Bookings will only be accepted for appointments up to 90 days in advance of the date of request.

ATIS cannot create a conference call for you. Check you are using a phone that has conferencing ability to call your non-English speaker or that the phone has a speaker if they are with you.

Call 1800 131 450 to connect to ATIS. You will be asked to say and confirm the language interpreter you need, before entering the preferred gender of your interpreter and your ATIS account and access numbers.

Once ATIS connects you with an interpreter you will be provided a job number. Write this number down as a record of the call in case you have any follow up enquiries.

If you experience issues during your ATIS interpreting session, press 0 on your keypad and you will be connected to a TIS National operator for assistance.

You can also view the ATIS help sheet for more information about using the service.

TIS National provides access to immediate phone interpreters 24 hours, every day of the year. Call the TIS National contact centre on 131 450 at any time of day or night to access an immediate phone interpreter.

When you call 131 450 for immediate phone interpreting the TIS National operator will ask you for the following information:

language required

your client code

your agencies name and the section you work in

your name and phone number

the non-English speakers name and phone number

any required information your agency has requested be recorded by TIS National (for example, an identification number or claim number)

To help our operators process your request as quickly as possible, please have this information ready to provide when requested.

On-site appointments are usually booked by the organisation that needs to communicate with their non-English speaking client.

You can easily request and manage all of your on-site interpreter bookings through TIS Online. Using TIS Online allows us to secure an interpreter for your request in the shortest possible time frame. All agencies registered with a TIS National account are automatically registered to use TIS Online. Find out more about TIS Online or visit the TIS Online login page to get started.

If TIS National has not been able to find a phone interpreter for your request, the following tips and hints may help.

Credential level - On your original request you may have asked us to only consider interpreters with a Certified Interpreter/Professional level credential from the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI). It may be helpful to re-assess whether it is crucial that you only use an interpreter with this credential, as considering using a lower or nil-credentialed interpreter can significantly improve your chances of securing an interpreter. TIS National’s procedure when filling requests is to always allocate the highest credentialed available interpreter first. Also note, NAATI certification/accreditation is not available in all languages. We will be unable to fill your request in these languages if you have requested we only consider certified/accredited interpreters.

Other languages spoken by your client - Does your client speak more than one language other than English? If they do, it may improve your chances of securing an interpreter if you request an interpreter in another language they speak as it increases the pool of interpreters we can contact and the likelihood of an interpreter being available.

Have the information ready - Having all of the necessary information with you when you call TIS National for an immediate service assists our operators to source the required interpreter as quickly as possible, allowing them to answer as many calls from clients as possible each day. When you call 131 450, you can assist our operators by having the following information with you:

your client code

your agency's name and the section you work in

the language required

your name and contact phone number

the non-English speaker's name (you can choose to keep this confidential)

the non-English speaker's phone number (if you need us to call them)any required information your agency has requested be recorded by TIS National (for example, an identification number or claim number).

Off-peak times - High demand for interpreting services during peak times can affect the amount of time it takes for our clients to connect with an operator and be allocated an interpreter when using our immediate service. To avoid lengthy wait times and improve your chances of being connected with an available interpreter it may be helpful to call TIS National during our quieter times. If you have the ability to call during our off-peak times between 8 am and 10 am Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) from Monday to Thursday and all day on Friday, you may have a better chance of finding an available interpreter.

ATIS - Using TIS National’s automated voice-prompted immediate phone interpreting service, ATIS, allows agency clients to access an interpreter in a range of high demand languages without assistance from a TIS National operator. ATIS automatically connects you with an interpreter in the requested language allowing you to avoid lengthy call wait times you may experience calling the contact centre for an immediate phone interpreter. Register for ATIS online or call our Client liaison and promotions account managers on 1300 655 820 for more information.

If TIS National has not been able to find an on-site interpreter for your request, the following tips and hints may help.

Credential level - On your original request you may have asked us to only consider interpreters with a Certified Interpreter/Professional level credential from the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI). It may be helpful to re-assess whether it is crucial that you only use an interpreter with this credential, as considering using a lower or nil-credentialed interpreter can significantly improve your chances of securing an interpreter. TIS National’s procedure when filling requests is to always allocate the highest credentialed available interpreter first. Also note, NAATI certification/accreditation is not available in all languages. We will be unable to fill your request in these languages if you have requested we only consider certified/accredited interpreters.

Other languages spoken by your client - Does your client speak more than one language other than English? If they do, it may improve your chances of securing an interpreter if you request an interpreter in another language they speak as it increases the pool of interpreters we can contact and the likelihood of an interpreter being available.

Send your request in advance – Sending your request approximately two weeks before the scheduled appointment time will generally give you the greatest chance of securing an interpreter. This will increase the pool of interpreters who are available to accept the assignment as they haven’t already made prior commitments. While TIS National can accept on-site booking requests up to 90 days in advance of an appointment, these requests can be difficult to fill as many of our interpreters will not be able to commit to a booking too far in advance. When TIS National receives an urgent job request (i.e. within three business day of the requested time) it will be processed within a 24 to 48 hour period. Booking requests for an interpreter for the same day the request is submitted are actioned immediately. However it’s important to note that in these cases the pool of interpreters available to accept the request will be somewhat limited, as it’s likely our interpreters will have already accepted other bookings at that time.

Schedule your appointments together - If you need an interpreter in a particular language for more than one of your clients, try to schedule your appointments with them on the same day. By scheduling the appointments together, you can book a single interpreter for a longer period of time and use them for multiple client appointments.

Provide an alternative date and time - When sending your booking request, if possible, provide an alternative date and time for your appointment. This will provide our booking team with another option to find you an available interpreter in the case no one is available at your preferred time.

Include accurate booking details - When completing your booking request it is important you include accurate booking details to ensure we can process and complete your booking as required.

Use a phone interpreter instead - If you have been notified that we can’t provide an on-site interpreter for your booking, consider if it would be possible to use a pre-booked or immediate phone interpreter. Using a phone interpreter allows us to draw from a pool of interpreters across Australia, rather than only considering interpreters based in your location. Using a phone interpreter also provides a greater level of privacy for your client, particularly when the only suitable on-site interpreter may be known personally to your client.

If you lose the connection with your client and/or interpreter during a phone service, you can be re-connected by calling 131 450 and quoting your job number.

You must call back within five minutes of being disconnected to continue with the same interpreter and job. Calls can only be reconnected within five minutes to ensure the interpreter is not disadvantaged by being unable to accept other work they may be offered.

A Service Delivery Form (SDF) is a written record that the interpreter attended an on-site assignment.

Our interpreters need the SDF signed to verify the start and end times of the appointment as agreed with the agency. This helps TIS National calculate what payment the interpreter is entitled to for the assignment.

It is important that you ensure the start and end times are recorded accurately on the SDF and it is signed at the end of appointment. If your appointment ran over time it is important to reflect this time on the SDF.

TIS National immediate telephone services are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year by calling 131 450. The amount of time it takes to connect to a contact centre operator is generally shorter in the morning between the hours of 8 am and 10 am Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), and all day on Fridays.

ATIS immediate telephone services are also available 24 hours a day, every day of the year by calling 1800 131 450.

Pre-booked telephone interpreting and on-site interpreting requests are monitored 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Most of our business support teams are available between 9 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday AEST (excluding public holidays). These teams include:

Interpreter Liaison

Client Liaison

Free Interpreting Service

Finance Administration

To contact any of the business support teams, visit our contact us page.

High demand for interpreting services can affect the availability of our interpreters. To avoid lengthy wait times and to improve your chance of being allocated an interpreter in our high demand languages it may be helpful to booking the service in advance.

Yes. There are occasions when TIS National may need to cancel a pre-booked telephone or on-site interpreting assignment as no interpreters are available. TIS National will notify the agency contact person listed on the booking request if this occurs.

You should only request a WWCC-cleared interpreter when you have assessed that the relevant legislation requires one. If you request a WWCC-cleared interpreter where this is no legal requirement for one, this may unnecessarily restrict TIS National’s ability to fulfil your request and may mean we are not able to supply you with an interpreter.

Where a client determines that legislation requires a WWCC-cleared interpreter for a particular job, you can indicate this requirement in the following way.

On-site interpreting jobs

When creating a new job in TIS Online, go to the ‘Additional requirements’ section.

Select ‘yes’ for ‘Do you have any other requirements for the job?’

Select ‘yes’ for ‘Does relevant legislation require the interpreter to hold an appropriate Working with Children Check (or equivalent)?’

Select the state/territory where the minor will be located at the time of the job.

TIS National will release such jobs to interpreters who hold the required WWCC (or equivalent) only.

Pre-booked phone interpreting jobs

Select ‘yes’ for ‘Does relevant legislation require the interpreter to hold an appropriate Working with Children Check (or equivalent)?’

Select the state/territory where the minor will be located at the time of the job.

TIS National will only allocate such jobs to interpreters who hold the required WWCC (or equivalent).

Immediate phone interpreting jobs

Call the TIS National Contact Centre on 131 450.

Advise the TIS National operator at the start of the call that a WWCC-cleared interpreter is required.

When asked by the operator, advise which state or territory the child is located in.

The operator will look for an interpreter who holds the required WWCC (or equivalent) and conference them into the call in the usual way. The operator will advise you if there are no interpreters available with the required WWCC. If this is the case, you may call back at a later time and try again.

Please note that TIS National operators are not able to allocate an interpreter who does not hold a WWCC if you have advised that a WWCC is a legal requirement for the job.

TIS National has worked hard to build a pool of WWCC-cleared interpreters. We have also introduced system enhancements which allow us to provide WWCC-cleared interpreters upon request, in order to ensure compliance with WWCC laws.

Clients can request a WWCC-cleared interpreter where they determine that one is required for a particular interpreting assignment.

In most circumstances, TIS National has no knowledge of whether a particular interpreting assignment may:

involve a child, and

meet criteria under WWCC legislation which gives rise to the requirement for a WWCC-cleared interpreter.

Consequently, we rely on clients to inform us if a WWCC (or equivalent) is required for an assignment.

When clients tell TIS National that a job requires a WWCC-cleared interpreter, we will provide one wherever possible. If we do not have any WWCC-cleared interpreters available in the requested language at the requested time, we will not be able to fulfil the request and clients can try again at a later time.

TIS National is working hard to ensure as many of our interpreters as possible hold a WWCC (or equivalent). We hope to have broad coverage of WWCC-cleared interpreters across as many languages and jurisdictions as possible. However, occasionally we may not have a WWCC-cleared interpreter available in the requested language at the requested time and we may therefore not be able to fulfil all WWCC job requests.

Clients should give careful consideration to the requirement for a WWCC before requesting one. Requesting a WWCC where it is not legally required may unnecessarily restrict TIS National’s ability to fulfil your request and may mean we are not able to supply you with an interpreter. Clients are therefore encouraged not to request a WWCC unless they have assessed that it is a legal requirement for the job.

A WWCC (or its equivalent in different jurisdictions) provides a level of screening designed to protect children from possible harm perpetrated against them by workers.

Each state and territory has its own laws in relation to WWCCs and the requirements are different from state to state. In limited circumstances defined in the legislation, it is a legal requirement for workers to hold a valid WWCC before undertaking work with children.

You should only request a WWCC-cleared interpreter when you have assessed that the relevant legislation requires one. If you request a WWCC-cleared interpreter where this is no legal requirement for one, this may unnecessarily restrict TIS National’s ability to fulfil your request and may mean we are not able to supply you with an interpreter.

Relevant laws in the ACT are different to other jurisdictions. The ACT legislation covers ‘vulnerable people’, which is defined more broadly than just children and specifically includes people accessing migrant, refugee and asylum seeker services (including services for people who have difficulty communicating in English). As a result, where non-English speakers (NES) access on-site interpreting services in the ACT, it is a legal requirement for the interpreter to hold the ACT equivalent of a WWCC (called a ‘Working with Vulnerable People Check’, or WWVPC).

TIS National systems will automatically allocate a WWVPC-cleared interpreter to all on-site jobs where the NES is located in the ACT. Clients will not need to take any action to identify this requirement – it will happen automatically.

Phone interpreting is not affected by this special arrangement, as the ACT legislation does not currently require a WWVPC for phone interpreting.

No. A TIS National interpreter facilitates communication with a non-English speaking client and does not conduct interviews, give advice, complete forms for you or your client or provide their own personal opinion.

If a session runs for longer than 90 minutes you will need to provide the interpreter with sufficient breaks. Interpreting can be very demanding and interpreters should be provided with sufficient breaks to eat and rest.

TIS National can also assist you to work effectively with interpreters by developing a presentation slideshow specific to your organisation. Contact a TIS National Client Liaison and Promotions account manager for more information.

TIS National also maintains an active feedback register to record both positive and negative feedback and follow up issues when required. We strongly encourage you to provide feedback as it helps us identify issues we may not be aware of.

As our interpreters perform work on-site on your request, they are subject to the Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) policies and procedures of your workplace.

The best way to help minimise risks to TIS National interpreters is to factor them into your WHS planning, such as providing the interpreter with a WHS orientation when they arrive at the site.

Orientation for interpreters may cover topics such as:

the nature of the operations of your business and the associated hazards and risks

appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risks to health and safety

processes for receiving information about incidents, hazards and risks in your workplace

TIS National interpreters are provide information about their obligation to attend WHS orientations when attending on-site assignments when requested.

If an incident occurs involving an interpreter while performing an on-site assignment in your workplace, please contact the TIS National Interpreter liaison team immediately to inform us of the incident.

There are three main levels of interpreter credentials available through NAATI.

Certified Interpreter/Professional Accreditation (or higher):

Suitable for specialisations such as health, legal and formal proceedings.

Certified Provisional Interpreter/Para-professional Accreditation:

Suitable for general conversations and interpreting non-specialist dialogues.

RecognisedPractising Interpreter/Recognition:

Granted in emerging languages or languages with low community demand for which NAATI does not offer certification. Interpreters with this credential have recent and regular experience as an interpreter. Suitable for general conversations and interpreting non-specialist dialogues.

Some TIS National interpreters hold none of the credentials outlined above and are referred to as ‘Nil credentialed’. This generally occurs in very low demand languages where NAATI offers neither certification nor recognised practising status. These interpreters undergo TIS National interview and reference checking processes to ensure their work is of a high standard. For languages where certification/accreditation is not available, TIS National may be able to allocate a Recognised Practising or nil-credentialed interpreter.

If your call is connected with an interpreter and your non-English speaking client does not answer the call, you can request that the interpreter leave a voicemail message.

Provide the interpreter with:

non-English speaker’s name (if available)

your name

your organisation name.

The interpreter will then be able to leave a voicemail message.

For example:

Hello [insert non-English speaker’s name]

I am an interpreter calling from TIS National on behalf of [insert your name] from [insert your agency name]. Please contact TIS National on 131 450 and ask to be connected to an interpreter in [insert non-English speakers language] and to call [agency name].

TIS National interpreters can provide their name and personal identification number to agency clients. The interpreter can choose not to disclose their name to the agency client. In this case the client should address the interpreter as “interpreter”.

For on-site jobs the interpreter will need the agency client to sign a Service Delivery Form (SDF), which is their written proof that the job took place.

The role of the agency is to manage the interview and conduct a free flow of communication. It is important to firstly introduce yourself to the interpreter and brief the interpreter on the situation.

If you are using an on-site interpreter the correct seat positioning is essential to get the most out of your session is a triangular seating setting.

When using a phone interpreting service it is important to provide details of the phone you are using and also allow the interpreter to introduce themselves to the client. You should maintain eye contact with your non-English speaking client to show that they are the centre of your attention.

If the interview is booked for a long period of time, it is the agency’s responsibility to provide regular breaks to the interpreter as they will need to recharge their batteries throughout the session.

TIS National interpreters understand their responsibilities and perform under the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT) Code of Ethics. Our interpreters maintain professional behaviour and keep the content of a conversation confidential whilst abiding by their Code of Ethics. Our interpreters facilitate communication with the non-English speaking client and do not conduct interviews, give advice, complete forms or provide their own personal opinions.

Professional interpreters speak in the first person to ensure they accurately interpret what is being said. This avoids confusion and ensures that the message is being interpreted and understood correctly by all parties.

If you are unsure about what is being said or by who, ask the interpreter to clarify what was said.